The last several weeks have been not at all what I expected. Life has been coming at me from all directions, requiring my full attention, and leaving little time for the daily tasks involved in running a business.
It seems that not all that long ago I was in a comfortable routine. I had just enough time to devote to each area of my life. I was keeping the website updated, and making daily posts to Facebook. I had even organized and run a successful contest giving away a basket of baby care items from Essante Organics (a company that I am passionate about).
Things in the garden and flowerbeds were looking good; our seeds had sprouted and we were, for the most part, staying on top of the weeds. I was enjoying time with my family; good quality time. Then, the rains came, and along with them the floods. Flooding occurred not just from the river overflowing the banks, but in other areas of my life.
My routine started to bog down. With additional requirements of things needing to be done with my ex-husband’s estate, and some very wonderful but very time consuming opportunities for more public exposure of my health coaching business.
Every evening I have been feeling mentally drained and exhausted. I was not able to sleep well since I hurt my back, so I was waking up in the morning tired, as well.
I was looking forward to our short vacation at Port Aransas, Texas. It is a small but quaint gulf coast town, with enough fishing opportunities to keep everyone entertained. I had quite a list of things to get done before we left, but every day was a challenge to just get the basic chores covered.
For me, family comes first, and my daughter was needing some extra support through some tough times. Plus, she came down with a pretty bad cold so when she came home for a few days, I did everything I could to help her heal.
This past week was finals week at her university, but she was able to take her tests and turn in all of her final papers in time so that she could go with us to the coast. It is the first time she vacationed with me and my husband.
Despite the fact that she was sick, we still had a great time together. It was what everyone needed, to get out of town, catch some rays at the beach, eat some fabulously prepared fresh seafood, and do some fishing. It was wonderful family time.
Our efforts at fishing produced only one fish that was too small to keep. I was disappointed because I really wanted my daughter to experience the excitement of hooking into and landing a good sized fish. However, I was thrilled that she was with us so that we could show her around Port Aransas. She got to feed a pelican, watch the sea turtles, witness hermit crabs and blue crabs in the wild, and saw her first dolphin.
Before we set out on our trip, it was my intent to not only write my blog, but also the newsletter for May. I started them both, but never had time to finish them; and I definitely was not going to spend any of my vacation time working on them (I didn’t even take my computer with me).
The time flew by, and now I am back at home. Unfortunately, I am fighting off a head cold which is draining my energy. I believe the stress of the last several weeks caught up with me.
The undone chores are still here waiting on me. The garden needs lots of attention, the flowerbeds need weeding, the house needs vacuumed, of course vacation laundry is waiting for the washing machine, and all I want to do is sit in bed.
It’s been a rough few weeks dealing with the disappointment of not being able to keep up with not only the social aspect of my health coaching, but also not being able to keep up with my chores around the house. The burden of the stress of having to let things go that are important to me has been so great that I just had to push through it.
I was taking care of my family’s needs, and that is what is important. I didn’t stay up late at night trying to catch up; I took care of myself by going to bed at normal time. I took lots of deep breaths, picked my head up, and focused on the next task before me.
I feel a little bit broken from everything that I have been dealing with; not meeting my own expectations used to make me a little maniacal. I just am not sure that I can continue beating myself up over not measuring up to my own standard.
Now that I am back home, I am going to pick up where I left off and take things one step at a time. Today, I wrote my blog. Tomorrow, we will see if I feel up to doing some laundry and writing the newsletter.
Have a great week.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
